To walk out is to leave suddenly in protest or anger. No explanation, and the door left open.
The industrial sense is formal enough to have its own noun, since a walkout is an unofficial strike. The domestic sense is heavier, and walking out on somebody means abandoning them. There is a dated British sense in which walking out with somebody meant courting them, which now sounds Edwardian. Storming out is the more dramatic version of the first sense.
1phrasewalk outTo leave suddenly as a protest.
“Half the audience will walk out before the interval.”
2phraseabandonTo abandon someone.
“He would never walk out on the children.”
Also accepted in games: storm out
Practised in Phrasal Verbs, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 1 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word